Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, episode 5.Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender perfectly debunked one of the biggest criticisms surrounding The Legend of Korra over 14 years after it premiered. Though the original animated Avatar: The Last Airbender was one of the most acclaimed animated shows ever made, the franchise has had a rocky time following in its wake. M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action movie is widely regarded as one of the worst adaptations ever, and reviews for Netflix’s The Last Airbender have been divided at best.
Even the animated sequel The Legend of Korra, while more successful than live-action adaptations, has been subject to criticism and comparisons to The Last Airbender. Critics of the show take exception to Korra’s brash and stubborn personality, for example, among other things. One of the chief complaints about The Legend of Korra wasn’t actually about Korra, however, it was about Aang.
Several people took exception to the way The Legend of Korra handled Aang’s legacy. Characters like Kya and Bumi asserted that Aang was an absent father who played favorites with Tenzin, the only airbender of the group. Korra also has to deal with several messes Aang didn’t fully resolve. Amon’s entire motivation is getting revenge for what Aang did to his father, while Kuvira felt that Aang had stolen the Earth Kingdom’s land.
The Legend of Korra as a whole never shied away from showing the ugly parts of the legacy Aang and his friends left behind. Korra’s world is filled with the fallout of their decisions, their shortcomings, and the expectations they failed to meet. Many people didn’t like that and still criticize the show for how it handled Aang’s legacy, but Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender has finally given the franchise a definitive response to that criticism.
Netflix’s Avatar Yangchen Perfectly Explained Aang’s Troubled Legacy In The Legend Of Korra
In Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, episode 5, Aang and Team Avatar enter the Spirit Library. While there, Aang has a conversation with Avatar Yangchen (Dichen Lachman) where she shares some sage advice: “Every Avatar feels like they’re the most important avatar that ever lived. But we all make mistakes… No Avatar can succeed in balancing everything forever. That’s why we’ll always need the next Avatar.”
While Yangchen’s words were helpful to Aang as he tries to handle the responsibility of being the Avatar, it also means a lot for The Legend of Korra. Aang did leave quite a few unresolved problems for Korra to inherit, and he made quite a few mistakes as an adult. The legacy he left behind and the problems he couldn’t solve, however, aren’t entirely Aang’s shortcomings. Aang left these problems behind because it’s impossible to solve everything.
As Yangchen said, every Avatar makes mistakes. It’s the whole reason there’s an Avatar Cycle at all. Every Avatar, from Wan to Aang, has put out whatever fire was biggest at the time, knowing that their next incarnation would be around to clean up what was left. The Legend of Korra didn’t ruin Aang’s legacy or retroactively make him worse, it made him more realistic, more similar to other Avatars like Yangchen and Kuruk, and it showed the whole reason for the Avatar Cycle in action.
Avatar Can Use Yangchen’s Quote For Seven Havens As Well
Yangchen’s explanation of why the Avatar Cycle is needed and how every Avatar leaves unsolved problems and loose ends after their death can also be applied to an upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender show. The Last Airbender franchise is about to push into the future of the timeline with Avatar: Seven Havens, which is expected to premiere in 2027, and explore the next Avatar after Korra, an Earthbender named Pavi.
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While not much is known about Seven Havens so far, there has been a broad description of the show’s world and the challenges Pavi will face. The world has been described as “post-apocalyptic,” and Seven Havens‘ creators have said that ordinary citizens view the Avatar as a destroyer rather than as a force for peace, as both Aang and Korra were seen. Clearly, Seven Havens is showing that Korra left just as many (arguably more) problems unsolved as Aang did.
Seven Havens, however, can rely on the Netflix live-action adaptation and Yangchen’s words to explain why Korra’s legacy fell apart in the years between shows. Avatar: The Last Airbender, as a franchise, is inherently cyclical. Now that Yangchen has put it into words via Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pavi may have an easier time of inheriting the role in the real world than Korra did.